Carrier support for reciprocating conveyers



i 1931. RA. WALTER 1,807,110

I CARRIER SUPPORT FOR RECIPROCATING GONVBYERS Filed June 11, 1927 Fig.5

F'ig. 4

r wanton fawn/w 17 W44 72-78 @51 1 abfovwu o I Patented May 26, 1931 i UNITED STATES PATENT OFFER RAYMOND A. WALTER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIG'NOR TO CONVEYOR SALES COMPANY,

OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK CARRIER SUPPORT FOR RECIPROCATIN G CONVEYERS Application filed June 11, 1927. Serial No. 198,116.

This invention relates in general to supbinations to be hereinafter set forth and porting structures and more particularly has claimed, with the understanding that the reference to a carrier support for a recipseveral necessary elements comprising my rocating conveyer. invention, may be varied in construction,

6 Previous to this time reciprocating conproportions and arrangement without deveyers, otherwise lmown in the art as shakparting from the spirit and scope of the aping or jigging conveyers, composed of a pended claims. seri of trou hs secured together to make In order to make my invention more clearup any desired length, have been supported ly understood, I have shown in the accom- 10 at suitable intervals by mechanisms conpanying drawings means for carrying the structed to permit the troughs constitutsame into practical effect, without limiting ing the conveyer to be reciprocated backthe improvements in their useful applicaward and forward. Among such mechations to the particular constructions, which nisms that have been improvised to meet the for the purpose of explanation, have been 15 particular requirements are wheels journaled ade the subject of illustration. V on axles, free rollers, ball bearing rollers In the drawings forming a part of this and suspension chains. specification,

One type of supporting structure has been Flgure 1 isa front perspective view of designed to take part in producing the acthe carrier support forming the subject :0 celerated and retarded reciprocation of the matter of this invention; troughs constituting eificient conveyer oper- Fig. 2 is a front elevation sectional View ation, while the other types have simply of the carrier support mounting showing consisted of a rolling or swinging support, the conveyer and carrier supports partly placing the entire burden of operation on broken away; the driving engine. Fig. 3 is a side elevation detailed view of The most efficient carrier support that has the carrier support; been developed up to this time is the ball Fig. 4: is a side elevation detailed view, bearing type. This has not been highly sat showing a modification of Fig. 8; isfactory however as its present assembly Fig. 5 is a front elevation of a conven- O has given rise to considerable sliding frictional ball bearing carrier support; 7

tion, detracting from the efficiency of the Fig. 6 is a side elevational detailed view conveyer by reason of certain fundamental of the support shown in Fig. 5. details in construction to be hereinafter more Referring by numerals to the drawings fully described. wherein the same and similar elements are An object of this invention is to provide designated by like symbols of reference a carrier support for a reciprocating conthroughout and more particularly to Figure veyer adapted to eliminate sliding friction 5 there is shown a conventional ball bearirrespective of positioning. ing carrier support heretofore in use with I Another object of this invention is to proreciprocating conveyers employed in mines 4O vide a carrier support for a reciprocating and for'various other industrial uses. conveyer designed to assist in producing the This support comprises a ball race frame accelerated and retarded reciprocation conwork 1 composed of suitable structural steel. stituting efficient conveyer operation. shapes adapted to be placed on a floor or r A still further object of this invention is any other suitable conveyer foundation.

to provide a carrier support for a recipro- An upper frame 2 is adapted to slide back eating conveyer adapted to operate in a minand forth with respect to the lower frame imum of head room. on ball bearings 3. Suitable brackets l are With these and other objects in view riveted to the bottom of a conveyer trough 5, which may be incident to my improvements, '5 and engaging a cross piece 6 rigidly mountthe invention consists in the parts and comed on the upper frame 2.

When the conveyer 5 is reciprocated, the brackets 4 engaged .on the cross piece 6, reciprocate the upper frame 2 on the ball bearings 3. The direction of transport for the material in the conveyer is indicated by the arrow on the conveyer trough shown in Figure 6. \Vhile this type of. carrier sup:-. port is more efficient than the various other t es of su norts not em 10 in ball bearyP ll P y c ings, it embodies certain fundamental defects and disadvantages that the improvements effected in this'invention seek to. overcome.

lVhen the upper frame 2 is reciprocating back and forth on the ball bearings 3 with respect to the lower .frame 1, as shown in Fig. 5, as a vertical force is exerted, there is a rolling friction between the ball, bearings 3 and the top frame 2 at the point 10 and a similar friction between the ball bearings and the lower-frame 1 at the point 11. This rolling friction at points 10' and 11 obviously cannot be eliminated and is appreciably less than the friction encountered on any other form of support heretofore developed, except the suspended type. hen the ball bearings 3 roll back and forthmaintaining a rolling contact on the top frame 2 and the bottom frame 1 at points 10 and 11, the sides of the balls at points 12 must move back and forth progressively with and in relation to the top frame. This gives rise to: an objectionable sliding friction that causes excess wear and develops appreciable'power losses.

If the bottom frame 1 is positioned absolutely level and the conveyer troughs 5 set up in perfect alignment with each other and with the length-wise axes of the frame 1,. the sliding friction will not be present to a damaging degree. these conditions seldom obtain as the bottom frames 1 are usually not; accurately leveled and are sometimes inclined side-wise to an appreciable extent, causing a wide variation in the alignment and level. of the individual trough units. These two factors combine to create side thrusts in the direction of the double-headed arrow 13- as shown in Figure 5, causing a heavy sliding friction at the points 12 on the ball' bearings at'the points where the thrusts occur.

There is shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3 a carrier support forming the subject matterof this invention designed to eliminate the;

undesirable sliding friction detracting from the efficiency of the structure embodied in the previous ball bearing carrier supports hereinbefore described. i

The conventional conveyer trough 5 is mounted on the novel support by brackets 4: riveted to the bottom. The support is preferably composed of structural steel shapes although it may be fabricated of machined metal parts or constructed in any other de-.

In practice, however,

sirable manner. by the brackets ion a cross piece 26, preferably formed of a T-beam bent upwardly at each end to form an angle of with the horizontal. A plurality of L-beams adapted to act as ball races are downwardly mounted on the outside of the upwardly bent ends of the T-beam cross piece, by any suitable means so that the sides also form angles ends of the races 2% and- 25 to retain the balls 3 in position and preventthem from falling out of the support. The bottom race 25 is further provided with a series-of apertures, shown, to permit any refuseentering the race, that may retard the function of; the balls to fall out or be removed- The balls have a purely rolling contact on the four points 20-. Vertical loads in the direction ofthearrow 21 or horizontal forcesin the direction of eithero-f the points'of the double. headed. arrow 22-as shown in Figure 2 will notv change the normal functioning of the balls, as the contact. isalways a rolling one on the four points 20.. 7

his to be understood that this invention. is not confined to this particular construetion as" it may readily be perceived that a three point contact may be desirable, and easily obtained by substituting a flat ball raceiin place of either of the upper or lower angle races 24 or 25' many manner so.- that the con-veyer exerts a horizontal force on the support.

' The reciprocation the direction of transport of the'niaterial as indicated by the,

arrow 23' in Figure 3 is known as thefor--' The return reciprocation ward stroke. against. the direction of transportof the material- -being= conveyed is known as the backward stroke. As described. in my copending application; Serial No. 173,136,

filed March 5-, 1927, successful operation of a reciprocating conveyer is dependent upon building up kinetic energy in the.

material during the forwardstroke which will overcome the coeficient of friction of the material suf'nciently to permit it to slide forward during the backward stroke of the conveyer. This resultis best attained by starting the conve-yer on its for Ward stroke very slowly and constantly accelerating through the major portion of the forward stroke .untilit attains itsln' gln The trough 5 is supported 7 est velocity shortly before the reversal to the backward stroke. The conveyer is then quickly brought to a full stop and immediately reversed. The backward stroke should be exactly the reverse of the forward. stroke and should attain its highest velocity at the very beginning and gradually slow down until it reaches Zero motion at its end.

The forward stroke of the conveyer should be so proportioned that while it is accelerating it does not gain velocity so rapidly as to overcome the coefficient of friction of the material being conveyed. If the motion is properly regulated the material moves forward with the conveyer on the forward stroke and gradually builds up kinetic energy to such a point that when the conveyer is suddenly brought to a stop and instantly reversed at the end of the forward stroke the kinetic energy is suflicient to overcome the friction between the material and the conveyer trough. The energy thus contained in the material makes it slide forward and causes the forward motion to be emphasized or increased by the rapid withdrawal of the conveyer from underneath the material on the backward stroke.

With the old type of support shown in Figures and 6 the movement of the conveyer being entirely in a horizontal plane, no differences in pressure occur between the material and the trough at any point in the stroke, making it necessary to overcome the resistance of friction entirely by the action of the motor.

In this invention, as shown in Figures 3 and 4, the carrier support is inclined to impart a lifting motion and cause the conveyer trough to press more firmly against the material during the forward stroke and temporarily increase the friction between the material and the trough. This allows the conveyer to attain a more rapid start on its forward stroke, without any resultant slippage, than can be accomplished when the stroke is entirely in a horizontal plane.

When the conveyer moves forward on an inclined forward stroke at a constantly increasing speed a definite upward impulse is given to the material by reason of the in clined forward motion of the upper frame and the trough. When the conveyer is stopped at the end of the forward stroke and suddenly reversed the trough momentarily tends to fall away from the material which still has a tendency to move upward and the friction between the material and the trough is decreased at the proper moment. The decrease in friction at the end of the forward stroke permits the kinetic energy in the material to move it forward a greater distance before the friction between the material and the trough absorbs all the contained energy. The length of the legs of the supports 27 and 28 may be regulated according to the positioning of the conveyer. If the troughs are situated on a falling grade or where low capacities only are'desired, the front and rear supports 27 and 28 may be of the same length, but where higher capacities or more eflicient operation is deemed suitable, the front cross leg 28 may be constructed higher as shown in Fig. 3.

The rear support 27 may be reversed so that the rear of the ball races may rest directly on the foundation supporting structure, allowing a lower assembly and still preserving the same inclination of the support by forming the front cross support 28 of proper length.

If the conditions effecting transport are especially adverse, giving rise to a need for a greater decrease in friction at the end of the forward stroke of the conveyer, this result may be simply obtained by building a race radially as shown in Figure t. In

this structure the upper and lower ball races 24 and 25 are concentrically curved and mounted in parallel relation. 7

It may readily be perceived that the upward pitch between the forward end of the upper race 24 and the conveyer trough 5 is appreciably greater in Figure 4 than the pitch on the end of the flat inclined plane as shown in Fig. 3. The increased pitch causes an additional upward or pressing effect between the trough and the material, increasing the adhesion proportionately on the upward stroke so that the drop'of the trough from the material on the reversal to the backward stroke will be increased in like proportion, additionally facilitating transport by increasing and decreasing the friction of the material and the trough at the proper moment;

The operation of this invention may be readily understood having reference to Figures 1, 3 and 4c. The ball races 24 and 25 positioned at a angle to the horizontal of the cross piece 26 and the cross pieces 27 and 28 and receiving a vertical force from the conveyer, afford a perfect four point rolling contact to the bearings 3 for backward and forward reciprocation without any shearing stresses. The inclination of the supports permits an exceedingly strong and satisfactory connection between the cross members 26, 27 and 28 and allows a low assembly of the conveyer on the bent cross piece 26. The height of the assembly or the inclination of the support may be regulated by varying the length of the cross supporting legs 27 and 28, or the rear of the support may rest directly on the foundation, if so desired, to attain the lowest possible assembly by reversingthe position of the supporting leg 27.

The inclination shown in Figure 3 permits the conveyer to assist in attaining the proper reciprocation imparted by the drivfine myself to the precise details of construction herein set forth, by Way of illustration, asit is apparent that many changes and variations may be made therein, by those skilled in the art, Without departing from the spirit of the invention, or exceeding the scope of the appended claims;

I claim:

l. A carrier support for a reciprocating conveyer comprising flanged support mem hers having upturned ends, angular bottom ball races mormted on the sides of the up turned ends, ball bearings seated in the bottom races, angular top races on the ball bearings and a flanged! support member having upturned ends mounted on the conveyor,

the upturned ends being mounted on the angular top races. 7

2. A carrier support for a reciprocating conveyor comprising flanged support members having upturned ends, angular bottomraces mounted on the sides of the upturned ends of the support members, ball bearings seated in the bottom races an ular to races mounted on the ball bearings, means to mount the conveyer on the top races and means to retain the top and bottom races in position.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signaturer RAYMOND-A. IVALTER. 

